Uber hires University of Toronto AI expert Raquel Urtasun to oversee development of new AI research lab in Canada

Uber blog: I’m proud to welcome Raquel Urtasun to Uber. Raquel is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of machine perception and artificial intelligence. Raquel’s work focuses on developing the software that allows self-driving cars to “see”: recognizing objects so they can navigate the world smoothly and safely.

Raquel will remain in Toronto to lead a new branch of our Advanced Technologies Group—our first outside the U.S. By setting up shop at the MaRS Discovery District, we hope to draw from the region’s impressive talent pool as we grow, helping the dozens of researchers we plan to hire stay connected to the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor.

With support from the Ontario and federal governments, Toronto has emerged as an important hub of artificial intelligence research, which is critical to the future of transportation. That’s why we’re also making a significant multi-year financial commitment as a platinum sponsor of the Vector Institute, which Raquel helped to set up as a co-founder.